Important test for Petrucci ahead of round one

In their first and only preseason testing outing of 2014 IodaRacing and Danilo Petrucci focused on the configuration of the new Aprilia ART that they will use in 2014.

On the first day in Qatar the team’s work was focused on the behavior of the new bike, whilst Petrucci, who had not been on a MotoGP machine since the last race of the 2013 season, built up his confidence with the ART and the desert track.

On Saturday, some configuration issues with the new Marelli control unit restricted Petrucci to 34 laps, leaving the Italian with plenty to do on Sunday.

With the electronics properly configured on the two bikes available, the rider also tested some new components: a seat-tail part and a new tank on his number two bike, while bike one was maintained as normal as a reference.

By the end of the third day of testing Petrucci had completed over 140 laps, clocking his best time at the Losail circuit at 1’58.086, leaving him 15th overall.

“I’m definitely satisfied with the work that we did,” he commented afterwards. “When I came here I did not think I could do so well. The ART is a very nice bike, it has a lot of potential and I was frustrated not to have had more time to ride it. Unfortunately, the electronic problems we had on Saturday made us lose almost a full day of testing and on Sunday I had to stop just when I started to improve.”

“But the progress we made over these days leave me satisfied with the work with the team and with the Aprilia engineers who join us in this new adventure.”